Edinburgh!

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Hi again!

Happy Book 7 everyone! Hope we've all run out to get our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and are now burying our noses in it! I spent Harry Potter weekend in Edinburgh, and I'm afraid i didn't see quite as much of Edinburgh as i would have liked cos a fair chunk was taken up by reading! Not to give anything away for those of us less obsessed who haven't finished it yet, but it is FANTASTIC!!

My weekend started veeerrry early with a 4am wake up call to catch a 6am flight to Eddy, but it was acually good cos we had the whole day free to sight see. Edinburgh is a lovely city, though it was a little bit weird to have a huge hulking castle perched at one end of it. Our hostel was right next to the castle, and we had a great view from our bedroom window. Friday was spent exploring the Royal Mile, while is a stretch of shops etc between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (where Queenie lives when she visits Scotland), then we went on a tour of the Palace. In the afternoon, we took a bus to Roslin to see Rosslyn Chapel which is featured in the Da Vinci Code. It was amazing, with heaps of intricate carvings and lots of beautiful symbolism. Unfortunately, I didn't find the Holy Grail, but maybe I'll visit again and discover it next time!

Friday night was the Big Night, cos Harry Potter is released at Saturday 12:01am here. The other girls were too tired to line up for Harry (plus they don't actually like the book!) so i was on my own in a line that stretched more than two blocks. It was also FREEZING!! I met two nice Americans in line and they kept me company so that was good! 😊 I finally got my book at 1:37am (according to my receipt!) and I stayed up til about 330am reading before i flaked. Kelly, meanwhile, was second in line at K Mart at Marion and only had to get there at a much more civil hour of 8.30am! On Saturday we went to Edinburgh Castle and i went to the Loch Ness Discovery Centre (the other girls didn't want to find Nessie for some reason!), then Sunday was attempting to climb Arthur's Seat (the highest point in Scotland) but only got halfway cos we actually climbed the wrong hill and then were too tired to bother with the real one!

Overall, it was a fabulous weekend. The Edinburgh Festival is on in a week's time incorporating the Fringe and the Military Tattoo, and i think this was the calm before the storm with not too many tourists. The weather was cold but not too much rain which was lovely!

Back in Dublin this week- our last week here! It's a little bit sad! I'm gonna miss our lovely apartment and the nice flat city and Irish stew without the meat and the random homeless people that sleep by our door. We haven't been up to much around Dublin lately, except going to the hospital (where we've annoyed the scrub nurses cos there are now 5 medical students including us, a Romanian, and an Irish student!) We went to see Riverdance last week, which was great, it was excellent seeing it live.

Not much else to report, except big HAPPY BIRTHDAYs!!! to Tam and nearly Kelly and anyone else who has had a birthday since I've been gone, sorry if i missed you!! Oh yeah, and guess what?!?! I'm a Flinders Intern!!!! Yay!! I got my job offer yesterday! It's a little bit scary, it's making this whole medicine thing seem real!

Bye for now,

Love, Rikki

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Comments

[tam]

congrats!
hey rik! wow, a flinders intern, huge congratulations!!! that's so exciting! glad you found some ppl to line up with for harry! i'm about a quarter of the way through, borrowing greg's copy while he's out ;) enjoy your last week in dublin and happy travelling. love tam